The Sinag Arts Studio
A 400sqm creative studio space located near the Mandaluyong City Hall, The Sinag Art Space serves as a venue for rehearsals, theater workshops, performances and studio shoots.
Dance of Sisa was taken from Ang Paglalakbay ni Sisa: lsang Noh sa Laguna by University Professor Emeritus' Amelia Lapena Bonifacio. This is Lapena-Bonifacio's reinterpretation as a Noh play of Jose Rizal's Sisa character from the novel Noli me Tangere. Written in 1973 during her ASPAC fellowship in Japan, this Noh adaptation reflects her commitment to introducing an Asian Theatre form that has regained the respect and admiration of the world for the Filipino people.
In Rizal's novel, Sisa is portrayed as an archetype of a wife and mother, weak, nervous, pleading and suffers hardships in silence to give a better life for her two children, Basilio and Crispin, who work as church bell ringers. They were charged by the abusive priest Padre Salvi of robbing the church collection. Crispin dies in the hands of Padre Salvi. Basilio escapes but becomes a fugitive. Unable to bear the pain and express her anger and grief in losing both her children Sisa becomes insane.
Borrowing the Noh allows Lapena-Bonifacio to make possible what was impossible in Rizal 's novel by making Sisa come back from the dead to retell her story, her ghost is able to speak out and confront her aggressor, Padre Salvi. The Noh, which allows the co-existence between this world as represented by Basilio and the other world as represented by Sisa and Crispin, makes it possible for Sisa to be reunited, briefly, with her two sons. Sisa 's ghost, which returns as the insane Sisa is able to fearlessly recollect and narrate the violence and shame she experienced in life, thus undergoing a catharsis,which makes it possible for her to regain sanity and peace of mind. Lastly, in this Noh play, Sisa is no longer the victim as she finds equality with Padre Salvi.